Big is Beautiful

I have had too many cars in my life – all inexpensive, used things, always on the far side of a decade old. One was a 1971 Lincoln Continental in Wimbledon White. It drove like a hovercraft and sucked fuel like a jet on afterburners, but it had an 8-Track and prodding that thing around town while Mayfield’s Superfly soundtrack played was a wondrous experience. I bought it for my feature film and it was a fantastic production vehicle. Could carry a crew of eight easily, while two light kits, sound gear, and camera crap all fit in the trunk with room to spare. Phil and I moved all his belongings in one go, including an IKEA

bookshelf that didn’t even need to be disassembled. It also carried a Euro sized version of vonTrier’s Europa (Zentropa in Canada) inside. It died in Keremeos BC one night, wheezing its last. I grabbed the plates, signed the pink slip over to the hotel, packed up my crap for a courier to pick up, and hopped on a bus to Vancouver, for a wedding of Christal’s friend.

My last car – and if I am lucky, my last car ever – was a 1974 Mercedes 280 that I had restored. It had the best brakes of any vehicle and even after 25 years the doors closed with a thunk. It looked like a car a kid draws. Square and boxy, with just enough curves to be sensual, it didn’t look like a suppository, or not one you could possible insert without excruciating pain. No nonsense elegance.

I just bought a lovely Mamiya RB67SD this weekend as a birthday self-present. It reminds me of the Benz. Boxy but curvy and kinda sexy, and all functional elegance. I got it down in photo-scroungers heaven which is next to stereo heaven and second-hand electronics heaven – basically, blocks of heaven that can take a day, easily, unless you tire of looking and marvelling at stereo gear carved out of solid blocks of unobtanium; every kind of camera ever along with lenses and odds and sods; all else that has an electric heart, including, I am sure, some used pacemakers and maybe an actual Arvik or two.

The Mamiya is big; every review you will ever read will remind you or complain of this. With it in only one hand, you are worried about dropping it. If you don’t have over an octave reach on the piano, it’s a two-hander. I have tiny little hands but a good grip and I like using both hands.

It’s obtrusive and you are aware of taking pictures when using it, which is one of the reasons I bought it. It’s not quite as engrossing as a view camera (I am guessing, never having used one, but wanting to) but it is deliberate. You are probably shooting with a tripod, which makes you consider placement and your lens more than using a digital 35 with a healthy zoom. The waist-level finder stares at you, challenging your composition. Winding the film and cocking the shutter are two operations. The mirror noise reminds me of the Benz’s doors – a healthy kathunka (the shutter is a whisper). There is nothing unsubstantial about it .

It is all about the process and I like processes. I like the rituals when I bench or deadlift or clean the weights for a press. It’s tactile, and I am dying for opportunities to take it out and use it. To get that groove, which I know I will screw up but since I won’t be shooting sports or doing street photography, that’s fine. I’ll probably forget to cock the shutter, or wind the film, or pull the darkslide, and miss the shot, just as I often forgot something with the Moskva V I have and ended up having to trigger the shutter by pushing the little lever that the shutter release rod is supposed to prod. I am hoping that it forces me to concentrate more on the 35mm work with the 30d, which is all to easy to take for granted. The luxury of space is freeing but may also spark carelessness, which is not what I want.

Works of art – or consistently good photos- are deliberate. That’s the big difference. It’s knowing the gear and how things react. And sometimes not being able to see right away is a good thing. To remember what you saw and how it is supposed to look. To remember that when you pick up the film and check the print or the scan and see if it matched.

I hope I enjoy it as much as I want to.